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To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic,alt.pagan.magick,alt.occult.methods,alt.lucky.w From: nagasivaSubject: Re: Magic Definition Analysis (was Magick, ...) Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 23:10:53 GMT 50020323 VI kaos day! continuing .... (quoting Buckland) Witchcraft is a religion *[AUTHOR'S NOTE: see "Witchcraft From The Inside", by R. Buckland, Llewellyn, 1971.] while magick is a practice. In other words, *anyone* can do magick. Consequently they can do it for good or ill, depending on their own personal ethics. ... *Sympathetic* magic is based on the principle that like attracts like. Make a wax or clay model representing a person and, if you work to the prescribed formula, whatever you do to the figure will actually happen to the person. ... By burning different types of candles and manipulating them in various ways they find they can influence people and things. --------------------------------------------- "Practical Candleburning Rituals", Raymond Buckland, Llewellyn, 2001; pages xiii [intro 1982], 1-2. ==================================== ignoring the fact that Raymond Buckland appears to have included unattributed (no source list) major portions of "The Master Book of Candle-Burning" by Henri Gamache, which sri catyananda lists as: Originally published in 1942; this is a revised 1998 reprint. The classic text on hoodoo candle burning in the pre-Santeria era; covers everything you need to know about colour symbolism, figural candles, dressing candles, altar layouts, etc. The author was beyond doubt the best early 20th century writer on hoodoo. 96 pages (plus ads), trade paperback. $6.00 http://www.luckymojo.com/mojocatbooks.html within what he calls his compendium of simple, practical rituals collected from around the world. Some are relatively new; some have been around for hundreds of years. They cover many aspects of life; many of the basic needs that 'the people' have felt at one time or another -- good or bad. -------------------------------- Ibid., p. 1. =============== and Rituals are given for all the more frequently dealt-with conditions, plus one or two which are a little more out of the ordinary. Two forms of ritual are usually given. One [Gamache in every case?] is the customary Christianized form -- simplified versions of which are found in the few books currently available on candleburning -- the other is a more general traditional form. The latter have been collected by the author from various sources throughout Europe and seem to reflect the earl pre-Christian nature worship -- the *Old Religion* as it is known. --------------------------------------------- Ibid., p. 10. ============================= seems to be the same thing as what many have also called 'candle-burning spells'. this book contains a description of what he calls "purely an act of Black Magic": 'voodooing' someone with a doll-baby, and a elsewhere features quote from Gamache's "Master Key to Occult Secrets" regarding modern examples of the Hand of Glory, all in Buckland's his 'The Darker Side' Appendix, which also contains the following: For this [Black] *sympathetic* magic to work the Practitioner must be really worked up, really angry -- must feel so incensed against his intended victim that if he were present in person he, the Practioner, would certainly attack him physically. ----------------------------------------------------- Ibid., p. 174. ================= and It is possible to purchase special figure candles -- usually a red-wax female and black-wax male [!] -- from certain suppliers. These are candles in crude human form, with a regular wick running through them. They can be used as in the above described Black ritual [the pinsticking doll-baby trick]. Since such a candle is already formed then it *must* have some object belonging to the Victim attached to it, to personalize it. It must also, of course, be sprinkled, censed, and named. When the pins have been stuck into such a figure- candle and the curse is complete, the Practitioner may light the wick and let the candle burn completely down. In this way, the curse is absolutely irrevocable. ------------------------------------------------------- Ibid., p. 175. ================= interesting that he mentions red and black as if these are usually gender-paired, black with male, red with female. isn't that the Alpha-male-centered perspective of the cosmos? (women are lust objects and men are competitors for sex and love) I'm sure it was unintentional. perhaps it is a particular tradition of ritual-work he is describing here, I'm unsure that I'm familiar with it. my understanding is that red male or female is typically love-and-sex-getting, while black is used to coerce or harm, again, whether male- or female-shapes (when you can even tell the difference!). I'm sure colour-associations vary, though why red-female and *blue-male* wasn't his choice may be on account of having visited the stories and noticing the bins. :> red females and black males are probably the hottest sellers. aside from all this, however, the theory of magic Buckland is espousing (as historical?) is one which requires emotional intensity and (at least in the human-formed candle-magic, physical personal concerns (e.g. 'some object belonging to the victim'), as *well* as sprinkling, censing and naming. he clearly, elsewhere in the book, distances what he calls "Witchcraft" from the material in this text, quoting the Wiccan Rede and explaining that only some of the magical material in his book will intersect with the different category he describes as his religion, "Witchcraft". he states that it is "possible" to burn candles in this way without dressing them and provides associations with colours, astrology, and days of the week. it is interesting that he uses language I have rarely found outside references to hoodoo (dressing, uncrossing, etc.) and what appear to be borrowings from Gamache's work in his text, Buckland advising that one should not pinch out the flame of the candle with your fingers! this is funny to me because I have heard both contentions espoused by a number of people about how to extinguish candles in magic. I would bet there is a similar diversity of belief in religion about best ways to light and extinguish, for a variety of reasons (explore them here!). he says they can be blown out in reverse order to lighting them or doused with a candle-snufter. I favour none of these methods (rarely using candles for magic), yet do enjoy putting out the flame of a candle or stick of incense with the pass of my hand before it, decisively and with a flourish. with long-burning candles or those in containers this can become quite difficult, and I may blow the candle out if a handwave or two doesn't do the trick, sometimes with a flourish. magic and its multitude of definitions and practical styles.... next book in the stack.... nagasiva
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